Venezuela top elections official reveals irregularities and lack of transparency in presidential election News
Confidencial, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Venezuela top elections official reveals irregularities and lack of transparency in presidential election

The head of the National Electoral Council (CNE) in Venezuela, Juan Carlos Delpino, announced in a statement published on Monday a series of irregularities during the July 2024 presidential elections in Venezuela, questioning the electoral process and the integrity of the announced results. “Everything that happened before, during and after the presidential election, points to the seriousness of the lack of transparency and veracity of the announced results”, he said.

Juan Carlos Delpino started his statement by specifying that serious irregularities occurred after the closing of the polling stations. These include violating the principle of equity and failing to observe the voters’ right to access the voting records following the eviction of opposition witnesses during the closing of some polling stations.

Furthermore, Delpino asserted that the transmission of the results did not comply with the protocols which dictate that the transmission should take place immediately after the closing of the polling stations. Instead, the transmission of the results was interrupted and delayed due to an alleged cyberattack. He also added that although he was the rector of the CNE, he wasn’t informed of the attack until late in the day, precisely at 9 PM.

Additionally, Delpino criticized the lack of timely publication of the elections’ results table by table within 48 hours. He added that Venezuelan authorities didn’t allow the term of the period of 30 days stated in Article 125 of the law of electoral processes (LOPRE) to run, which affected the chain of trust of the audit and generated uncertainty. Article 125 states that the CNE orders the publication of the results of the electoral processes in the Electoral Gazette within 30 days following the proclamation of the elected candidates.

In the second part of his statement, Delpino recalled the irregularities that preceded the vote. These include the exclusion of parties that had obtained high percentages of votes in previous elections from participating in the elections, the absence of meetings of the CNE and imposed restrictions that significantly limited the registration and updating of data of citizens inside and outside Venezuela that the CNE was not aware of.

The rector of the CNE further explained that because of these irregularities, he didn’t attend the announcement of the first bulletin in the totalization room. Therefore, he stated that he lacked evidence to support the announced electoral results. Delpino also declined the president of the CNE’s invitation to attend the proclamation ceremony.

Delpino’s statement comes one month after the controversial July 28 presidential elections, when Nicolas Maduro was announced as President of Venezuela. However, the opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez and his supporters contested these results and questioned the elections’ integrity. This resulted in nationwide protests from both the supporters of Maduro and Gonzalez.
The EU also expressed its concerns over the electoral process in Venezuela’s elections and several European countries called on the CNE to publish all the voting records.

The country’s supreme court validated the electoral results and ratified Nicolas Maduro as President of Venezuela. Nevertheless, opposition figures, including Gonzalez, rejected the court’s ruling and vowed to pursue to challenge the announced results.

 

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